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The Brown and Fox family photograph albums are a two-volume set of albums containing approximately 253 snapshots of people and places in Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan as well as views of Colorado.

The Brown and Fox family photograph albums are a two-volume set of albums containing approximately 253 snapshots of people and places in Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan as well as views of Colorado.

Volume one (19 x 14 cm) has brown paper covers with "Photographs/Souvenirs/of/Denver Colo" stamped on the front cover and contains approximately 67 photographs. Contents mostly consist of architectural photographs of houses in rural or semi-rural settings as well as portraits, many of which are accompanied by handwritten notes. Images of interest include the farm of Henry Brown near Toledo, Ohio; a woman standing near a roadside fruit and flower stand; the homes of Will, Ben and Harry Fox; the Abraham Lincoln home and tomb in Springfield, Illinois; the Catholic Church in Stuart, Iowa; and the courthouse and high school of Fremont, Nebraska. Also of note are photographs of the High Bridge in Boone, Iowa, the Methodist Church in Pueblo, Colorado, and a large house in Monroe, Michigan, possibly the home of Cyrus Augustus Olmsted (1863-1948).

Volume two (20 x 15 cm) has black fabric covers and contains approximately 186 photographs. Contents mainly consist of portraits and outdoor views from a trip to Colorado. Between the inside front cover and seventh page there are numerous portraits of men, women, and children, and many more individual and group portraits are present throughout the remainder of the album. Subsequent images of interest include outdoor views of the American West; a rest tent called the "Corona Café"; a cyanotype of a woman sitting on a rocking horse; the front of a train and the downtown area of a small railroad town; a church en route to Denver, Colorado; a woman holding a Brownie Box camera on her lap; Castle Rock, Colorado as seen from aboard a train; multiple pictures of an infant; views of Garden of the Gods; a snowy street scene with a streetcar in what appears to be Denver; and a group of people shaking hands with an individual wearing a Native American headdress.

Bishops files, records of executive and administrative bodies and of diocesan organizations, staff files, parishes and mission's materials, and visual materials and sound recordings.

The records of the diocese of Michigan have been arranged into the following series: Bishops' files, Executive and administrative bodies, Diocesan organizations, Diocesan programs, Diocesan staff, Parishes and missions, Clergy, Audio and visual material, and Miscellaneous.

The record group is most valuable for its documentation of the history of the diocese and the individual churches within its administration, with a lesser amount of material pertaining to religious functions performed and to the operation of diocesan administrative groups and departments. For a number of reasons, there is scant material pertaining to the administration of the diocesan office or to the special programs that have been initiated by it over the years. Some of this material may be found in the papers of individual bishops whose papers have also come to the library and are separately cataloged. These include Samuel McCoskry, Samuel Smith Harris, Charles D. Williams, Herman Page, and Richard Emrich. Records of parishes that remain open are under the jurisdiction of the relevant parish, and records of other institutions that remain open, such as missions, are under the jurisdiction of their deanery or parent parish. Local-level records held by the diocesan archives largely concern parishes, missions, etc. that have closed.